Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 76

Author: Davis, William T. (William Thomas), 1822-1907
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: [Boston, Mass.] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1160

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 76

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BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.

mother of two children, William T. Way and Edith Way, now the wife of Mr. Chen- oweth, who is connected with the New York Recorder. He died in the Roxbury District, of Boston, May 26, 1893.

JAMES AUDLEY MAXWELL, son of Joseph Edward Maxwell, a prominent cotton plant- er of Georgia, was born in Sunbury, Ga., and graduated at Franklin College. He spent a year in travel and then studied law in the office of Joseph Lumpkin, chief justice of Georgia. He then went to West Point Academy, where he graduated in the school of engineering and entered the profession as an engineer immediately before the war. He served through the war in the Confederate army first as second lieuten- ant and later as major commanding the Maxwell Battalion of Light Artillery. After the war he resumed the profession of engineering and was successively chief engineer of the Bainbridge and Thomasville Railroad, the South Georgia and Florida and the Brunswick and Vicksburg Railroad. Later as contractor he built the Albany and Blake- ly Railroad. He came to Boston in 1873 and was admitted to the Suffolk bar Febru- ary 13, 1875. Ife married Kathleen Cameron, of Ridgewood, N. J., and is now prac- ticing in Boston.

SAMUEL DEXTER Was descended from Richard Dexter, who was admitted a towns- man in Boston March 12, 1641-2, and afterwards settled in Malden. John Dexter, son of Richard, like his father, cultivated the Lane farm in Malden, and died Decem- ber 8, 1677, at the age of thirty-eight years. John Dexter, son of the above John, al- so a farmer, married Winnifred Sprague, of Malden, October 22, 1700, and died No- vember 14, 1722. Samuel Dexter, son of John and Winnifred Dexter, was born Oc- tober 23, 1700, and died January 29, 1755. He graduated at Harvard in 1720, and after leaving college taught school in Taunton, Lynn and Malden. He afterwards studied for the ministry and was settled the fourth pastor of the first church in Ded- ham May 6, 1724, with a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum. He married Catherine Mears July 9, 1724, and hadeleven children. Samuel, one of their children, was born March 16, 1726, and died June 10, 1810. He was a merchant and married Hannah, daughter of Andrew and Mary Sigourney, a descendant of André Sigourney, who came to America from Rochelle, in France, after the revocation of the ediet of Nantes. He was a member of the First Provincial Congress and the founder of the Dexter Professorship of Sacred Literature at Ilarvard. During the Revolution he moved to Woodstock, Conn., but spent his last years in Mendon, Mass., where he died. He was buried in Woodstock.

SAMUEL DEXTER, the subject of this sketch, was the son of the last Samuel and was born in Boston May 14, 1761. He graduated at Harvard in 1781 in the class with John Davis, for many years judge of the United States District Court, Charles Bul- finch and Dudley Atkins Tyng, and was the leading scholar in his class. He re- ceived the degree of LL.D. from his alma mater in 1813. He studied law in Worees- ter with Levi Lincoln and was admitted to the Worcester county bar in 1784. He began practice in Lunenburg, but removed to Chelmsford in 1786, and from thence to Billerica, where he remained two years. He then removed to Charlestown and occupied a house between Main and High streets. He finally removed to Boston where he was in practice in the earliest years of the present century, and where he continued in business until his death. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Charlestown from 1788 to 1790, and a member of Congress

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from 1793 to 1795. In 1799 he was chosen United States senator and served until June, 1800, when he was appointed secretary of war by President Adams and resigned. In December, 1800, he was transferred from the War Department to that of the secretary of the treasury, and continued in that position until the inauguration of President Jefferson in 1801. President Adams offered him also a foreign embassy, which he declined. On leaving the office of secretary he resumed the practice of law and one of the earliest important cases in which he was engaged after his return to Boston was the trial of Thomas O. Selfridge for the murder of Charles Austin in State street, Boston, in which he appeared for the defence. The homicide occurred in 1806, and a full account of the trial was published in pamphlet form in 1807. Ben- jamin Austin, the father of Charles, was a prominent merchant of Boston, and an ardent supporter of Jefferson. Mr. Selfridge was a member of the Suffolk bar and was accused by young Austin of slandering his father. To avenge the insult it was reported and believed by Selfridge that Austin intended to punish him at sight. Meet- ing in State street, an altercation occurred, the result of which was the death of Aus- tin by a pistol in the hands of Selfridge. The political hostilities existing at the time, and the high social rank of the parties, caused intense excitement in Boston, and the trial is, perhaps, with the exception of that of Prof. John W. Webster, the most mem- orable criminal trial in the history of the Suffolk bar. It has been said that Mr. Dex- ter never inclined to indulge in oratory before a jury, but in his address to the panel in this case he combined the closest reasoning with the most finished eloquence. The closing sentence of this address was repeated to the writer fifty years ago by the late Judge Nahum Mitchell, who heard it, and it will be difficult to find in essay or speech a combination of words more skillfully and gracefully constructed with a view to influence the human mind. Said Mr. Dexter: " I respect the dictates of the Christian religion ; I shudder at the thought of shedding human blood; but if ever I may be driven to that narrow pass, where forbearance ends and disgrace begins, may this right arm fall palsied from its socket, if I fail to defend mine honor." But Mr. Dexter was not profuse in his oratory. It was always in closest harmony with his argument and only resorted to when it could lend to hisargument force and grace. It was said of him by Mr. Webster that " his very statements were arguments." It has been said of him by another, quoting from "Roberts on Frauds," that he could never be charged with "amphibology of language, vagueness of description or vacuity of ex- pression." But nevertheless he by no means despised the arts of oratory, and, while laying them aside in his arguments to the court, he used them to the fullest advan- tage to influence the minds of those who were called from the occupations of daily life to decide between the plaintiff and defendant, or to acquit or convict a prisoner at the bar. In early life Mr. Dexter was a Federalist, but later supported the war policy of Jefferson, and in 1812 advocated a contest with England. He was an earnest oppo- nent of the embargo and argued in the courts against its constitutionality. In 1815 an extraordinary embassy to the court of Spain was offered to him by President Mad- ison, but declined. In 1816, a short time before his death, he was nominated by the Republican party for governor of Massachusetts, though declaring that he was not in full accord with the Republican policy. He was defeated by John Brooks, who had a majority of two thousand out of forty-seven thousand votes. He was one of the first in Massachusetts to take a public stand in favor of temperance and was the first president of the Massachusetts Temperance Society. Both in practice and profession

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BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.

he was a temperance man, and in reference to the prevalent custom of the time to keep conspicuously and offer wine on all occasions to guests, he said "that he had neither the taste nor the leisure to keep a tavern." He further said, "Give me the mon- ey paid for the support of drunken paupers in the United States and I will pay the ex- penses of the Federal Government and of every State in the Union, and in a few years become as rich with the surplus as the Nabob of Arcot." In the winter of 1815-16, while attending the Supreme Court in Washington, he suffered from an epi- demic which so enfeebled him that on one occasion he was obliged to suspend an argument which he was making to the court. Not long after he went to Athens, N. Y., to attend the marriage of his oldest son, Samuel, and died there of scarlet fever May 4, 1816. Ex-President Adams said on hearing of his death, " I have lost the ablest friend I had on earth." On the 15th of May the Circuit began its session in Boston, and it became known that Judge Story in charging the grand jury intended to include in his charge something in the nature of a eulogy of Mr. Dexter. The United States Court was held in what was then called the old court-house, nearly on the site of the court-house now on Court street. A new court-house had been built on the site of the present city hall, and there the Supreme Court held its ses- sion. The United States Court room became so crowded on this occasion that it was decided to adjourn to the Supreme Court room, and a procession was formed, headed by the United States marshal and his deputies and consisting of the judges of the courts, the chaplain, United States attorney and officers of the court, the Executive Council, the Massachusetts Senate, the sheriff of Suffolk, members of the bar and the public. The procession marched through Court street, Cornhill as that part of Washı- ington street was then called, and School street to the new court-house. There the charge to the United States jury was given by Judge Story, including a sketch of the life of Mr. Dexter, which the readers may find in the libraries of Boston. Mr. Dexter married in Charlestown about 1789, Katherine, daughter of William and Temperance (Grant) Gordon, of that town.

CHARLES ALFRED WELCH, son of Francis and Margaret Crease (Stackpole) Welch, was born in Boston, January 30, 1815, and graduated at Harvard in 1833, at the age of eighteen years. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in April, 1837. For many years he was a partner of Edward D. Sohier, where sketch appears in this Register. He belongs to one of the oldest Boston families, and is descended from John Welch, who married Elizabeth, daughter of John White, of Boston, and died probably in 1713 or 1714, as his will was proved May 1 in the latter year. John Welch, the son of the ancestor, was born in Boston, July 22, 1682, and married, January 23, 1706, Hannah, daughter of Thomas Phillips. John Welch, a son of the last John, was born in Boston, August 11, 1711, and died there February 9, 1789. He married first Sarah Barrington, who died in 1736, and second, October 29, 1741, Dorcas, daughter of Francis Gatcomb. Francis Welch, son of the last John, was born in Boston in 1744, and died in London, December 7, 1790. He married Susannah, daughter of Benja- min and Susannah (Noyes) Renkin. Francis Welch, a son of the above Francis, was the father of Charles Alfred Welch, and was born in Boston, August 30, 1776, and married, October 4, 1803, Margaret Crease, daughter of William Stackpole, of Boston. In carly life he was a merchant, but for many years was president of the Franklin Insurance Company of Boston. The writer remembers him in the latter capacity as

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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.

a remarkably handsome man, of fine bearing, and courtly manners. The subject of this sketch is now one of the oldest members of the Boston bar. In March, 1838, his partnership with Mr. Sohier began and continued until the death of Mr. Sohier in November, 1888. Probably no other partnership at the Suffolk bar, or any other bar in the Commonwealth, has had a life of more than half a century. The partnership between Henry Clinton Hutchins and Alexander Strong Wheeler began in 1844, and if continued another year will equal in duration that of Sohier & Welch. In the Massachusetts Reports abundant evidence may be found of the extent and importance of the business of this firm in the courts during its long service at the bar. Mr. Welch married Mary Love, daughter of Kirk Boott, of Lowell, and has his residence in Boston and in Cohasset.

FRANCIS BOARDMAN CROWNINSHIELD, son of Benjamin Williams and Mary (Board- man) Crowninshield, was born in Boston, Mass., April 23, 1809. His American an- cestor was Johann Kaspar Richter von Kronenschild, who came to New England from Saxony, Germany, about 1686, with Doctors Henry Burchstead, of Silesia, and Pierre Baudouin, of La Rochelle, France. In his will he signed his name John von Cronenshilt. He married, December 5, 1694, Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob and Eliza- beth (Clifford) Allen, of Lynn and Salem. His name was, probably, a translation from the Swedish von Kronskjold, belonging to a family which came to Germany from Sweden. His son John was born in Boston, January 19, 1696-7, and died in Salem, May 25, 1761. He was a merchant and ship-owner, and married, September 27, 1722, Anstiss, daughter of John and Sarah (Manning) Williams. George Crown- inshield, son of the above John, was born in Salem, Mass., August 6, 1734, and died there June 17, 1815. He also was a merchant and ship-owner, and married, July 27, 1757, Mary, daughter of Richard Derby. Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, son of George Crowninshield, was born in Salem, December 29, 1773, and died in Boston, February 3, 1851. He was a ship-master and merchant, and secretary of the navy from 1814 to 1819. From 1824 to 1832 he was a member of Congress, and in the lat- ter year removed to Boston. In 1811-1822 and 1823 he was a member of the Massa- chusetts Senate. He married, January 1, 1804, Mary, daughter of Francis and Mary (Hodges) Boardman. Francis Boardman Crowninshield, the subject of this sketch, son of the above Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, graduated at Harvard in 1829, in the class with Chief Justice George Tyler Bigelow, Rev. William Henry Channing, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Judge Benjamin Robbins Curtis, George Thomas Davis, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Prof. Benjamin Pierce, Rev. Chandler Robbins, Ed- ward Dexter Sohier, and Judge Joshua Holyoke Ward. Probably no more distin- guished class has ever graduated at Harvard. Besides those above mentioned seven- teen out of a class of fifty-eight made their mark in the various walks of life. He was admitted to the Middlesex bar in October, 1833, and established himself in Bos- ton, where he was for a time a partner of Rufus Choate. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and its speaker in 1848 and 1849. He was also at one time a member of the State Senate. He early became interested in rail- roads, and was several years president of the Old Colony Railroad. He was a man of sterling integrity, exact and thorough in his business methods, and a prudent and wise manager of the interests placed in his hands. He married, March 20, 1832, Sarah Gooll, daughter of Judge Samuel Putnam, of Salem, granddaughter of John

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and Lois (Pickering) Gooll, of Salem, and descendant of John Gooll, of Scotland. He died in Marblehead, Mass., May 8, 1877.

SUMNER CHASE CHANDLER, son of Theophilus Parsons and Elizabeth Julia (Schlat- ter) Chandler, was born in Brookline, Mass., April 4, 1854. He attended the public schools, and spent two years at Harvard College. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in November, 1875, and established himself in Boston. At a later time he was occupied in Colorado and Florida, in connection with corporation business, and in the practice of law in New York city, in partnership with the late Judge Muller. After the death of his partner he returned to Boston. He died unmarried in Brook- line, May 29, 1893.

JAMES E. LEACH, son of Philander and Sarah T. (Cushman) Leach, was born in Bridgewater, Mass., December 1, 1850. He was educated at the Bridgewater Acad- emy, and at Brown University, from which he graduated in 1874. He studied law at the Boston University Law School, and in Bridgewater in the office of Hosea Kingman, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1876. Mr. Leach is descended from Giles Leach, who settled in Weymouth in 1656, where he married January 20, 1657. On his mother's side he is descended from John Alden, Miles Standish and Isaac Allerton, three of the Mayflower's passengers. He is also descended, through his mother, from Robert Cushman, a member of the Pilgrim church at Leyden, and his son Thomas, who came to Plymouth in the ship Fortune in 1621, at the age of fourteen years, and having been educated under the care of Governor William Brad- ford, became the successor of William Brewster as the elder of the Plymouth church. Mr. Leach married, July 16, 1889, Alice M., daughter of James N. and Sabina (Bach- eler) Frye, and has his residence in Boston.

GEORGE BROOKS BIGELOW, son of Samuel and Anna Jane (Brooks) Bigelow, was born in Boston, April 25, 1836. His earliest American ancestor was John Bigelow, who settled in Watertown in 1636, and his descent is through Joshua Bigelow, one of the sons of John. On his mother's side he is descended from Joshua Brooks, of Con- cord, from whom John Brooks, governor of Massachusetts from 1816 to 1823, and Peter Chardon Brooks and the late Bishop Phillips Brooks were also descended. By intermarriage the Lawrence and Greene families of Groton were connections. Mr. Bigelow received his early education at the old Chapman Hall School, under Master Baker, and graduated at Harvard in 1856. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, and in Charlestown in the office of James Dana and Moses Gill Cobb, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar December 31, 1859. He has devoted himself almost exclusively to office practice, giving to that his time and energies, and seek- ing no office either by appointment or election. He was made the attorney of the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank about 1873, and has continued to serve in that capacity to the present time. Such an institution, with deposits amounting to twenty-two millions, is necessarily exacting in its demands, and Mr. Bigelow has given to its interests and welfare the best results of his judgment and care. He married June 2, 1869, Clara P., daughter of Ivory Beane, of Boston.

JOSEPH FRANK PAUL, son of Joseph Frost and Rachel (Bicknell) Paul, was born in Boston, March 24, 1851. He was educated at the Boston Latin School, and at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1873. He studied law at the Boston Uni- versity Law School, in Paris, France, and Berlin, Germany, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1878. He lives unmarried in Boston.

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HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.

EDWARD AUGUSTUS UTTON, son of Edward and Betsey (Davis) Upton, was born in South Danvers, Mass., September 23, 1829, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1855. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar March 22, 1858, and is now at the bar.

HOSEA M. KNOWLTON was born in Durham, Me., May 20, 1847, and graduated at Tufts College in 1867. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, and in New Bedford in the office of Edward L. Barney, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1870. He established himself at the Suffolk bar, but in 1872 removed to New Bedford and joined with Mr. Barney in a partnership which continued until 1879. He then became associated with Arthur E. Perry, who is still his partner. In 1876 he was a representative, and in 1878 and 1879 State senator. In the latter year he was ap- pointed district attorney of the Southern District to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of George Marston, who had been chosen attorney-general, and has continued in the office by repeated elections to the present time. He married a daughter of Benjamin Almy.

JOSEPH D. FALLON, the son of a farmer, was born in Doniry, county of Galway, Ireland, December 25, 1837, and after attending the national village schools came to America at the age of fourteen years. He entered the College of Holy Cross at Worcester in 1852, not then a chartered institution, and in 1858 received the degree of A.B. from Georgetown College. After graduation he taught school in Woon- socket, R. I., in Salem and in Boston, and while in Salem began the study of law in the office of Jonathan Coggswell Perkins, who had been a judge on the bench of the Common Pleas Court at the time of the dissolution of that court in 1859. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar March 11, 1865, and established himself in Boston, where he soon acquired an extensive and lucrative practice. As executor and trustee he has had many and large interests confided to him, and for several years he has been counsel for the Union Savings Bank, of which institution he has been for sixteen years vice-president. When the South Boston Municipal Court was established in 1874 he was appointed, by Governor Talbot, first special justice, and in that capacity served until the recent death of Judge Robert I. Burbank, the presiding justice of that court He was chosen a member of the Boston School Board in 1864, and served on the board at various times for nearly twenty years. In the treatment of ques- tions relating to the schools he was in accord with Thomas M. Brewer, Samuel K. Lothrop, James Freeman Clark, Samuel Eliot and Francis A. Walker, members of the board, and with them worked faithfully and harmoniously in promoting educa- tional progress. A believer in civil service reform, he has been for several years one of the examiners of the Boston Civil Service Board, and his service in this capac- ity has been especially earnest and valuable. After the recent death of Judge Bur- bank he was appointed by Governor Russell his successor as presiding judge of the Municipal Court for the South Boston District, and his appointment was unanimously confirmed by the Council. He married in Boston, in 1872, Sarah E. Daly, and lives in the South Boston District.

AUGUSTINE JONES, son of Richard M. Jones, was born in China, Me., in 1835, and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1860. He studied law in Boston in the office of John Albion Andrew, and graduated at the Harvard Law School in 1867. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in February, 1867, and practiced in Boston twelve years, after which time he removed to Providence, R. I. He was a representative from

George Fox Jucker,

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BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.

Boston in 1878, and in 1879 was appointed principal of the Friends' School in Provi- dence. He married, October 10, 1867, Caroline Alice, daughter of William and Mercy P. Osborne, of Danvers, Mass.

WILLIAM BRADFORD HOMER DOWSE, son of Rev. Edmund and Elizabeth (Bowditch) Dowse, was born in Sherborn, Mass., and graduated at Harvard in 1873. He grad- uated at the Harvard Law School in 1875, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in November of that year. He married, June 20, 1883, Fanny Lee, daughter of Henry G. and Frances L. (Williams) Reed, of Taunton. His American ancestor was Law- rence Dowse, of Charlestown, who was born in England in 1613, and died in Charles- town, March 14, 1692.

LE BARON BRADFORD COLT was born in Dedham, Mass., June 25, 1846, and gradu- ated at Yale in 1868. He graduated at the Columbia Law School in 1870 and traveled in Europe in 1870-1. He established himself in Providence, R. I., and was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1879 to 1881. He is now United States Circuit judge for the First Circuit, consisting of Maine, New Hampshire, 'Rhode Island and Massachusetts, to which office he was appointed on the resignation of Judge John Lowell in 1884.

EDWARD ALBERT KELLY, son of Albert Livingston and Caroline (Peirce) Kelly, was born in that part of Frankfort, Me., which is now Winterport, May 30, 1831. He is descended from John Kelly, who probably came from Newbury, England, and settled in Newbury, Mass., in 1635. The family to which John belonged is supposed to have been a branch of the Devonshire family, which either derived its name from the dis- trict of "Kelly" in that county, or gave to it its name. He received a grant of land in Newbury in 1639, and died December 28, 1644. His son John, born July 2, 1642, married, May 25, 1664, Sarah, daughter of Richard Knight, and March 15, 1716, Lydia Ames, of Bradford, and died in that part of Newbury which is now West Newbury, March 21, 1718. A third John, son of the last, was born in West New- bury, June 17, 1668, and married, November 16, 1696, Elizabeth Emery. He died in West Newbury, November 29, 1735, leaving a handsome estate. A fourth son, John, son of the last, was born in West Newbury, October 9, 1697, and married, December

31, 1723, Ilannah Somes, of Gloucester, Mass. He removed to Atkinson, N. H., and there died April 27, 1783. Moses Kelly, son of the last John, was born in West New- bury, March 15, 1139, and married, November 10, 1757, Lydia, daughter of Dr. Will- iam Sawyer, of West Newbury. The wife of Dr. Sawyer was Lydia, daughter of Israel Webster, a near relative of the father of Daniel Webster. Moses Kelly re- moved from West Newbury to Atkinson, N. H., and thence to Goffstown, N. H., from which place he removed to Hopkinton, N. H., before 1810, where he died Au- gust 2, 1826. In the War of the Revolution he commanded the Ninth New Hamp- shire Regiment of Militia and was high sheriff of Hillsborough county thirty years. Israel Webster Kelly, son of Moses, was born in Goffstown, N. H., January 4, 1678, and married about 1800, Rebecca, daughter of Rev. Elijah Fletcher, of Hopkinton, N. H., and sister of Grace Fletcher, the first wife of Daniel Webster. Ile was high sheriff of Merrimac county, N. H., from 1814 to 1819, marshal of the district of New Hampshire during the administration of Harrison and Tyler, and pension agent under Taylor and Fillmore. He removed to Concord, N. H., in 1841, and died there March 10, 1857. Albert Livingston Kelly, son of Israel Webster, was born in Bris-

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Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 76

Author: Davis, William T. (William Thomas), 1822-1907 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: [Boston, Mass.] : Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 1160

Author: Davis, William T. (William Thomas), 1822-1907
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: [Boston, Mass.] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1160